Backyard Menace
by Mazeykins
Summary: Takes place shortly after Lifeline and landing on their new planet M35-117. Sometimes accidents happen in your own backyard. Team fic and Rodney whump.
1. Chapter 1

The relocation of Atlantis to escape the Replicators had set forth a series of traumatizing events both for the city and its inhabitants. Their new planet was begging to be explored, but the damage to the main tower from the replicator's beam mixed with the loss of Weir and the incorporation of Carter had delayed any outings until repairs could be made to the city and to themselves emotionally. But today turned out to be the day that a field trip finally seemed possible…both McKay and Radek were in the uppermost section of the main tower repairing the last vestiges of rerouting conduits to the communications array leaving McKay available to head out with his team at last.

"Yes, McKay just reported in that he and Zelenka were testing the final connections," Carter said as she noticed a twinkle in John eyes as he fidgeted at the corner of her desk, waiting for the next words. "You can go…but I want you to be extremely careful and report in every 4 hours."

"Will do…I'm going to go grab McKay right now," John said as he bounded from the control room. He was too excited, his team finally got the go ahead to explore the main land. First stop, head up, past the Jumper Bay and retrieve McKay.

It only took John a minute to make it to where McKay and Zelenka had been camped out for the past few days.

"McKay!" shouted John as he stopped inside the doorway of the room Zelenka had said McKay went in.

"Ouch! Dammit, do you mind," Rodney sat rubbing his head from where it had made contact with the underside of a control panel.

John grimaced. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you but hey, we got the go ahead to see the sights…so get your gear…we're leaving in ten."

"What are you talking about, what sights?" Rodney had been so wrapped up for the last two weeks making repairs that he really had forgotten about the excitement of exploring a new planet, let alone the one they now call home.

"Um…hello, have you taken a step outside lately?" John joked. "How long have you been cooped up in this tower anyhow? I'm talking about searching for new and cool things on the mainland Rodney…jeesh."

Rodney's eyes brightened as he realized what John was talking about. "Really, Carter said we could go?"

"Yep, she said you were pretty much done up here; now get your stuff together. I've already contacted Ronan and Teyla, they'll meet us in the jumper room," John bent down to give Rodney a hand up.

"Ok…hang on, all I have to do is make this final adjustment then the communications array will be comp…" Rodney's quick typing was cut short as he noticed a blip on the laptop screen. "…what's this?" Rodney's eyes squinted to make sure he was reading correctly.

"What?" asked John, as he dropped beside Rodney to see what was so interesting.

"There seems to be what looks like a faint distress signal coming through," Rodney said engrossed in his findings.

"Where's it coming from?" John looked perplexed.

"Its not anywhere in the city…its coming from…here," Rodney said as he tilted the laptop and pointed to a place on a map. "…about ten miles inland…so after the distance of the ocean…would probably be about 120 miles away from the city," he continued.

"Well…that's even more of a reason to go check out the mainland," John said as Rodney looked up to John's face. John tapped his earpiece, "Colonel Carter…this is Sheppard. Rodney has found a distress beacon coming from the mainland."

"A distress beacon?" Carter said worriedly. "How far away?"

"It's about five miles inland," John said.

"On the mainland?…Rodney do you think its strong enough to signal any Wraith or Replicators to our new location?" Carter began to pace.

"I don't think so, its very faint…it doesn't seem to have the power to penetrate the atmosphere of the planet," Rodney said quickly. "But I'll have a better idea once I've had the chance to examine the device up close."

"Ok, John gather your team as quickly as possible and check out this signal," Carter stated.

John and Rodney had already started down the hallway to gather their equipment. "Teyla and Ronan are already in the jumper bay…we'll be ready in ten minutes," John said as he nodded to Rodney.

Ten minutes later the team was embarking in the puddle jumper headed toward the mainland. They had been so excited to finally check out their new surroundings but now it had been spoiled by the possibility that their location may not be so safe after all.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Rodney practically walked to the Jumper bay with his eyes glued to the screen of his laptop and it was no different as he sat in the chair beside John in the jumper. It only took about 30 minutes to cover the 100 or so miles to the mainland, but in that time Rodney had identified the signal's position as in a deep ravine. John cruised over the beach and then headed inland.

"The forest looks pretty dense, wait there's a small clearing," John eased the jumper down.

"What?" Rodney finally heard what he said. "No No No…this still leaves us three miles out from the signal….get closer."

"I can't, there's no other clearings…besides, a little walk wouldn't kill you Rodney. For the past three weeks you've been cooped up in that tower hardly coming up to eat or sleep and of course missing your training sessions with Ronon."

"Oh real funny…why don't you get some new material…another stab at my physical condition. I can't help it if my genius was needed outweighing the need to get hit with a stick by Conan here."

"I'll remember that next time we spar, Rodney." Ronon had a devilish grin on his face as he eyed Rodney. Teyla just rolled her eyes.

"Well kids, we're here…let's go and check it out." John began to get up as he heard a loud rumble coming from Rodney's direction. He noticed Rodney press a hand against his stomach as he was searching through his backpack.

"Rodney – what they heck did you smuggle in here, that sounded like a bear hiding in your jacket."

"Oh, just a bit hungry I guess. I didn't get to eat breakfast today."

"Rodney, you should have eaten…you should take better care of yourself." Teyla said concerned.

"Ah-ha…there…see nothing to worry about. I brought food with me." Rodney said as he held up a powerbar.

John clenched his jaw, "so help me Rodney…you better not complain during this trek…so eat two now." John was adamant in his tone but there was an edge of unease as he knew how bad Rodney's hypoglycemia could get especially when he had spent three weeks of hit or miss meals and lack of sleep."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…I'm already on my second one…let's go." And with that Rodney had his pack on and was walking down the ramp of the jumper.

Ronan, Teyla and Sheppard just gave each other looks and marked it up to another day that would likely be filled with an overly excitable scientist and the rest of them keeping an eye out for signs of exertion…for heavens knew he wouldn't take care of himself, especially with an important find on the horizon.

"Ok Rodney, which way?" Sheppard questioned as he clipped on his P90 and took point.

Rodney already had the energy detector in his hands…and he lifted his right arm without looking up and said, "That way," as he pointed in the direction the signal was emanating.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

"A little walk…hmph…right," mumbled Rodney as he trudged up a hill climbing over some moss-covered boulders. "Sheppard, seriously, covering three miles is torture!"

"Three miles should take a fit person 30-45 minutes," Sheppard shouted over his shoulder, not even looking to see how far back Rodney had fallen behind. "Keep up the pace you are taking and we may get there by nightfall."

"You know what," started Rodney, but he was cut short when his hand slipped on the slick moss and he quickly did a face plant into the craggy rock on his right. "Gah…oh, ah that's going to leave a mark."

Rodney slowly shoved his right forearm up the rock and pushed to stand up, although slightly bent over.

"McKay, you all right?" asked Ronon, as he stepped closer from behind.

"Yeah, I'm fine…just left half my face on the rock is all." Rodney said as he opened his eyes to a pained squint.

"Rodney you are bleeding," Teyla said matter-of-factly as she looked him over.

"I am?" Rodney's concern grew as soon as he heard her say those words and like a reflex his hand went quickly to his face and came into direct contact with a ragged cut. It started above his right eye and continued through his brow to the corner.

Sheppard, hearing the commotion, finally made it back to his team to catch Rodney flinching as he took his hand away from his eye. It looked a mess and he knew it had to hurt as Rodney's moss and dust-covered hand went right into the cut.

"Can't take you anywhere," Sheppard said coolly seeing the situation thankfully was not that serious…although it could have been if that rock had hit a quarter of an inch to the left into Rodney's eye.

"John…" Teyla peered back at him with the corner of her mouth screwed up, then turned back to continue batting Rodney's hands away from his face, till Ronon had had enough and grabbed his arms to help her.

"Thank you," as she looked up to Ronon and then quickly took out a piece of gauze, dampened it with water and started dabbing at Rodney's face.

"Ow…is it bad…I can't see…there's something wrong with my eye," Rodney began to wriggle in vain to get his hands free from Ronon to wipe at his eye.

Sheppard came up closer to calm him as he noticed Rodney quickly becoming distressed at the situation.

"Rodney, calm down and let Teyla clean you up. You're fine, you just have some blood running into your eye."

"What, oh…that's gross…get it out!" Rodney did not like the thought of his eye that way.

Teyla was holding the gauze to his brow to try and stop the flow and then took her other hand, cupped his chin and tilted his head to the right.

"Hold still Rodney, I'm going to flush your eye with some water," said Teyla soothingly as she began to pour the water over his eye.

Rodney jerked as the cold liquid hit him and he automatically began to blink away the deluge, noticing that he could begin to see much better. Teyla finished and patted his face dry with a cloth. She then finished by taping a fresh piece of gauze to his brow.

Ronon eased his grip on his arms and Rodney's hand quickly flew back up to his face to feel the gauze that, due to the path of the wound, hung over his eye like a horse blinder.

"Just great, now I can't see anything to the right."

"Would you rather not see at all…Rodney be thankful you still have your eye," Sheppard knew Rodney sometimes hid his fear by being sarcastic…but the overuse sometimes warranted him to say something to bring Rodney back to reality.

"Well, if you thought my pace was slow up till now…just imagine a person that can't see anything to the right and how slow I'll have to move now. Man, I bet I'll have to get stitches"

Sheppard rolled his eyes but when Rodney was right, he was right.

"Well, you know women love scars Rodney and as far as your hindered sight, we'll just let you set the pace; besides its kinda nice out here," Sheppard liked to be outdoors, so much really that he didn't mind the extra time it would take to get to where they were going.

"I'm so glad my injury can make you happy," Rodney sneered.

They all began to re-gather themselves to start back on their journey as Rodney sized up the energy signal again.

Sheppard began to start walking then halted and turned, "Oh, and Rodney watch your step."

Knowing Rodney was ok, for the most part, all three of them smiled and continued their 'little walk' while Rodney cautiously chose his next few steps.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

This world was definitely teaming with life, from dense overgrown forests to wildlife around every corner and all the while the team was having a hard go of it. Time was definitely not on their side, and Sheppard's prophetic statement about their slow pace came true having them arrive to the signal's source with just an hour and half left of daylight. It also put them at the four-hour check-in with Atlantis.

"Atlantis, this is Sheppard, do you read?" John stopped and motioned for the team to take a breather.

"Sheppard, how's it going out there? Have you found the source of the signal yet?" Carter asked leaning on a control console with Radek looking up at her from his own monitoring of the signal.

"Well…" Sheppard began as he looked around to survey his surroundings and his team. Ronan was leaning against a tree breaking sticks and Teyla was scooting next to Rodney as he slowly bent down to sit on a fallen tree.

Sheppard started again, "We are finally at the ravine. It took us a little longer than expected but we're here." As he said this he noted that Rodney had put down the energy detector and was rubbing his right temple. His right eye had started to swell a bit and a dark shadow rimmed under his eye.

"What took so long?" Carter didn't understand how it took so long to cover such a small distance.

"The terrain of this new planet is not that forgiving," he paused then continued, "You could say it's a jungle out here. Plus Rodney likes to massage his face with rocks apparently."

"Is everyone ok?" Sam was now wondering what had happened to them out there.

"Oh, everyone's ok, for the most part." John was peering over at Rodney, "Rodney has a nasty cut above his right eye…"

"And its throbbing like a second heartbeat," Rodney butted in on the conversation.

"...and he's a bit grumpy," John continued. "It's been a slow go of it because of the meandering rocky up and down trail we've been blazing. However we are here and are about to repel down the ravine. Luckily, the drop doesn't seem to be that far…it's just very dark down there," as he peered over the edge.

Ronon, having enough of a break, began to work the rope around a large tree for them to repel down.

"Rodney, are you ok enough to continue?" although Sam was concerned about the signal, she had to admit that her concern for Rodney was stronger.

"Yeah, although it hurts, its not that bad. I just want to get down there and find out what it is," Rodney was popping off the top of his canteen and swallowing some Tylenol that Teyla handed him.

"Ok, but you will, in a short time, be losing your light. Do you have supplies to make camp?" Sam knew they wouldn't be able to make it back to the jumper and being out in the open in new territory was a bit concerning.

Sheppard was already testing the line that Ronon had fixed. "We'll be fine, we have enough time to repel the 80 feet down to take a look around and then we'll set up camp."

"Be careful and Radek wanted me to remind you that there is still concern for this venomous snake-like creature that the ancient database talks about being found on this planet."

"Well, we haven't seen anything so far…just a bunch of birds and something resembling a deer but with stripes. With any luck that creature died out long ago," John said hopefully. "We'll radio you as soon as we find out anything or in another four hours."

"Alright, Carter out."

John got going by clipping in to the harness, while Rodney did the same and Teyla came to stand by Ronon.

"Rodney, I'm gonna go first and then you can come down. Ronon will send down your pack after you." Sheppard started edging over backwards, not before cracking some glow sticks and letting them drop to provide an idea of where he was going. "Here goes nothing." And with that Sheppard slid down into the ravine.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Rodney lost his grip when he was 10 feet off the ground and screamed like a little girl as he landed on his knees then fell back on his rear.

"Nice flying Robin!" John went to give him a hand up. "But I guess there can only be one Batman."

"Oh hardy har har…" Rodney got up dusting off his clothes and then quickly moved out of the way as their packs came down after him.

"Ronon, Teyla – were going to have a look around. I want you both to stay up top while we see what this is," said Sheppard.

John turned to see Rodney already heading off in the direction behind him.

"It should be right down this way," Rodney quickened his pace a bit. "right about here," he said looking up from his scanner but saw much of nothing except for a few writings on the rock wall.

"So where is it McKay?" Sheppard couldn't believe they came this far, be this close and still baffled.

"I don't know," Rodney looked back to scanner and up again, "It should be right here." He then proceeded to brush one of the symbols pushing along the way.

Suddenly the wall began to push out and John pulled Rodney back away from the protruding rock slab.

A faint blue glow started filling the room from the wall opening. The wall then stopped moving to reveal a bizarre looking device that pulsed. John and Rodney slowly took cautious steps toward it.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"What do you make of it McKay?" Sheppard said as he circled the pedestal that the device sat upon.

"It would help if I understood some of these symbols in here. There so worn it's hard to make out."

"Strange that the Ancient database doesn't mention anything about this device or this place." Sheppard couldn't understand why the Ancients wouldn't fill like it was worth mentioning.

"The text that Radek and I have been researching about this planet leads us to believe that this was only a planet that they explored a few times to catalogue the wildlife and perform geological surveys."

John stopped walking around and turned to Rodney, "but why the hell would the ancients build a device in such a place? I mean locked away in a ravine…makes you think that they wanted this place to never be found."

Rodney had to admit that he really couldn't argue with John's logic, nor was he anywhere closer to finding the answers behind the location of the device, what it did or why a distress signal was being emitted.

"Sheppard, what have you and McKay found?" Ronon was beginning to get bored. And in the hour that they had been left up top, he and Teyla had already set up camp and created a quick lean-to type shelter to cover the four of them.

John heard Ronon's question coming in intermittently through a static that wasn't there before.

"Ronon, hang on, I can hardly hear you…it must be this device," said John as he walked back out to where they repelled down. John looked up and could hardly make out Ronon's figure peering over the edge.

"Can you hear me now?" asked John.

"It's definitely better," said Ronon as he too was trying to make out John at the bottom of the ravine, "wonder why we have static all of a sudden?"

"I'm not sure but it's probably due to being so close to the device and its signal that it is emitting. How are you and Teyla?"

Teyla answered, "We are fine John. Ronon and I have set up camp…why is the device sending out a signal?"

"Not sure yet…Rodney is still working on it."

"Ah ha!" exclaimed Rodney over his radio, "I…nk…I…go…it." Rodney's radio was much worse as he was still in the room with the device.

"Oh..no...th…s'ot…ood," came again from Rodney.

"What did he say?" asked Ronon.

"Couldn't quite make it out. I'm going to check on him…I'll be right back," and with that John walked back to the room.

"Rodney, I couldn't hear you. Did you say something about it being good?" John stopped and looked to Rodney trying to gather his gear, "What are you doing?"

"What no no no no no…I said NOT GOOD," Rodney said with wild terror in his eyes, "We've got to go…It's…not happy…"

"What did you do?" John was trying to keep calm but already noticed that the blue glow was starting to pulsate faster.

"Nothing…it just started doing that," as he waved to the device.

"Well what's it doing?"

"I got into the logs…found out this device was a to provide ancients arriving to this planet with current seismic wave activity…that's why the location…this ravine is the epicenter…"

"WHAT?"

"Think Andreas Fault…think this as the alarm…now think about how fast you can run…because what I could read…is that its going to be big…and we don't want to stick around this ravine much longer."

As soon as Rodney and John got out the door a tremor already set in sending them into the rocky wall.

John touched his radio, "Ronon, Teyla – get ready to head out – we have an earthquake coming that's not going to be pretty."

Teyla and Ronon had felt the tremor to and was already getting ready to move.

Rodney made it up first and John was quickly behind him.

"We've got to go…NOW!" exclaimed Rodney as they all could feel the tremors strengthening.

John touched his radio as they started running, "Carter, we…fou…out the…evice…it's a seismograph…emors…alr'y star….put up…ur…ields."

"Oh my god!" Sam made out enough through the static to understand and knew that since they were not too close to land that Atlantis should fair ok but would raise the shields in case the waves got too high. "Can you make it back in time?"

"'ot sure…ow…mu..ime..we…have," John got that out before his radio went completely dead. The device must have completely shorted out the signal with its output.

All Sam could do was look on in horror…not knowing if her team, her friends would make it through.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

"Rodney! Pick up the pace," John bellowed as they scrambled over and around one of the rocky paths strewn with boulders of all sizes.

Rodney was busy hiking himself over a very large boulder and blurted back to John, "I'm doing the best I can maneuvering through this Devil's Marble Yard!!" Then he lost his balance.

Rodney made a vain clutch at rock and air then spilled over slightly backwards, head first, ultimately landing on his right shoulder with all the air being knocked out of him. As he concentrated on sucking in some much needed air he heard a clatter behind him. Turning his head slightly he noticed the familiar slim black shape that could only be his laptop slide out of his pack and through an opening between the rocks.

"No no no…" rambled Rodney as he threw out a desperate hand to grab his beloved computer.

"What the hell Rodney, leave it, we don't have time to stop!" John bounded effortlessly over the boulder that Rodney had taken a header and was now quickly moving to grab Rodney's vest to pull him up.

Teyla and Ronon had both heard John and stopped but were nervously waiting for the two members of their team to begin moving again. They were both unsettled by the tremors that had been building in strength since they departed the ravine.

"Ah-ha, got it!" Rodney exclaimed in excitement as he began withdrawing his arm that was shoulder deep in between the boulders.

But as luck would have it a very strong tremor caught him off guard and the laptop slipped from his grasp.

"Dammit to hell!"

John had had it. He struggled to get a hold on Rodney's vest in all the shaking but finally got enough of a grip to haul him up. Yet he wasn't quick enough.

The shaking intensified. John lost his hold; Rodney fell back to the ground while John stuttered step to maintain just being vertical. Then suddenly the boulders started to shift.

Teyla watching all of this by Ronon's side from afar felt very uneasy as the tremors started and she saw John lose his hold on Rodney. Then her heart fluttered as she noticed the boulders shifting.

"John, Rodney, you must move. You must move now!" She wondered if they could even hear her over the roar of the ground around them as it began to take on a life of its own. Then to her horror the ground beneath them began separating.

Rodney heard a faint yell from Teyla but couldn't make out what she was saying. All he could do right now was ride out the bucking of the earth on his hands and knees and hoped that it would stop soon. However, that hoping was all for naught as he heard the boulder above him began to scrape and he knew he had to move and move now.

John had his back pressed against the rocks holding out both arms to stay upright when he looked left as he heard Teyla say…something, but his attention was quickly drawn back to Rodney as he saw out of the corner of his eye a lot of movement and it all wasn't coming from Rodney unfortunately.

Rodney had managed to put his hands on the rock in front of him and began to stand up. He was so focused on not falling again that he didn't see what the others saw. The ground beneath him had started to separate. What he did see was the large boulder to his right tumbling directly towards him.

John and the rest of his team could only watch in horror as the boulder slammed into Rodney. It came down scraping his right arm and then continued down clipping his right leg. What they heard next scared them to the core, the piercing scream that escaped Rodney's lips, no earthquake would cover up the pain that their friend was in.

Rodney dropped to his left knee clutching his other leg. Tears welled up; his vision blurred as he tracked down to see the damage.

"Oh…AW!" This was so not good he thought, as all his nerve endings were on fire from his hip down. He felt like his hip had popped out of its socket, but that wasn't the only thing. His hands trembled down as far as he could to the outside of his thigh and with a gasp his fingers came away slicked red.

Rodney's eyes cleared a bit and looked down to see his pants had a long gash where he'd just touched. The rock must have gouged out a path across his leg as it traveled down. Still, he also knew that just by looking at his foot and how it laid slightly in an opposite direction than his knee that he had indeed broken his leg.

"Rodney!" His name came in three different octaves and he snapped his head back to see where his friends were.

They had all made their move towards their injured friend but their path was quickly diverted as the ground that each of them stood on shifted. Ronon and Teyla dropped as their ground shifted upwards along with Rodney's leaving John going the other direction. It stopped for a moment and then Teyla, Ronon and Rodney's newly created cliff broke again sending Rodney sideways sliding and screaming along the way until he skidded to a halt when the earthquake finally stopped.

Teyla and Ronon peered over the ledge and saw John about twenty feet below them holding his head; apparently he had hit it in the shift but didn't lose consciousness thankfully.

"Sheppard! You okay?" Ronon yelled down to him.

John shook his head but then regretted it and a muscle spasm in his neck made his head snap and send a pain to the top of his head.

"I'm ok!" he yelled back, "I think." He mumbled that last part to himself. "Are you and Teyla ok?"

"We are uninjured," Teyla informed him.

"Rodney?" He didn't hear anything so yelled a little harder, "Rodney!" Still nothing.

"He's unconscious John. The last shift moved him harshly, no doubt aggravating his injuries," Teyla said this as her gaze strayed away from John and settled on Rodney's unmoving body.

"Where is he?" John missed the second shift that sent Rodney away from them.

"He's closer to you than us…he's about eight feet above you." Ronon told John plainly.

"Ok," John said as he struggled to stand. "I'm going to work my way to him."

That's when he thought it would be a cinch to reach his friend, but then realized on top of the easy eight-foot climb he had a ten-foot crevasse he now had to figure in.

"Um, you all don't have a rope with you do ya?" John said as he surveyed the terrain.

"Hang on." Ronon got up walked away and came back. "How about this?" In his hand he held a vine.

"It will have to do." John said motioning him to throw it down.

"John, be careful," said Teyla.

John knotted a loop and began to throw over to Rodney's cliff. It took a couple times but he had pretty good aim and snagged the looped vine on an outcrop.

"Alright, here goes nothing," with that said, he swung over hitting his feet against the side and began to climb.

His head was pounding with the effort as he pulled himself up and over the cliff side. Rolling on to his back and taking a small breather he shut his eyes to ease the ache in his head. Then he quickly pulled it together and scrambled over to his friend.

Rodney was lying on his stomach with his face looking out towards him. If it hadn't been for the unnatural angle of his right leg John would have believed Rodney had just passed out and was sleeping peacefully. However, that was not the case.

John placed his hand on his neck looking for a pulse. It was fast and a little irregular. He shook him a bit.

"Rodney?" he got no answer, the scientist was apparently out of it. All the better really, it would give him time to check out his injuries and hopefully set his leg before he woke up. However he knew that most of his injuries were on his right side, the side that was away from him tucked up against the rock, so it would require moving him and he didn't like that idea.

"Ok, here we go Rodney, nice and slow," he said it out loud more for himself than anything.

He turned Rodney's head to lie on his left side and was greeted with the angry and now bleeding cut over his eye that had once been bandaged but had been tore off. He continued by grasping the man's right shoulder and right hip. He pulled slowly towards him so that he was now lying on his back. This movement elicited a whimpering 'mhmf' from Rodney but he still didn't stir. What he had to do next was get his leg in alignment so he could set it.

He gently moved his hand down Rodney's right leg, quickly noticing the gash along his thigh. It looked bad but he really wanted to get the leg set to save his friend some added pain while he was still out, so he quickly assessed the rest of the leg and found the break.

Directly below the knee his hands felt the depression on the outside and the protrusion of the bone to the inside. John quickly took his knife and slit the pants to the knee to see if the bone had gone through then skin. To his relief it had not.

Through all this, Rodney made little whimpers of pain and had gasped when John started moving his leg. John felt bad but it was now or never. He grasped Rodney's ankle and put his left hand around his knee. He pulled quickly. Rodney cried out and almost came to a sitting position, suddenly opened his eyes looked at John and promptly fell back breathing rapidly, yet to John's surprise he didn't lose consciousness.

"John, what's happening? Is Rodney ok?" Teyla sounded extremely worried.

"Its ok, I had to set Rodney's leg. He seems to be conscious now," he yelled back.

"mh..mh…h..he's…rrrightt here ya know…ah..ah," Rodney said through the pain.

John's attention quickly turned back to his friend lying on the ground writhing in pain. He noticed Rodney's right hand kneading the top of his right leg while the other clenched and unclenched in the dirt.

"Hey there buddy, how you feeling?" John felt stupid asking but it was one of those standard things.

"Are you ssserriouss…I'mmm dying hhhhere," Rodney managed to squeak out.

"You're going to be ok, but first I've got to stop the bleeding of your thigh and find something to splint your leg." John said quickly as he was already pulling out a field dressing.

He took his knife again and slit the pants up to Rodney's mid thigh to get a clear look at the gash. It dug diagonally from the top of his thigh and around to the side. Nasty was a nice word to describe it. John quickly pressed the bandage to the cut to staunch the blood flow, which caused Rodney to grind his already clenched teeth. To his credit, Rodney tried his best not to cry out.

John looked up to Rodney's face and noticed tears of pain tracking down the dirt on his face from the corner of his eyes.

"Hang in there Rodney, the worst is almost over."

All he got from Rodney was a ragged breath and a shaky "sure."

John quickly spied some broken branches that he could use to splint the leg. He broke them to size and came back to a panting and trembling Rodney. He knew he was going into shock.

"Rodney, I'm back. I'll make this quick."

John tore off some strips from his own shirt to use to bind the splint. He slid them under the knee and worked them down into position behind his calf. He then set the boards on either side of the leg. He glanced up at Rodney who was just hanging on and then got to tying off the strips of cloth.

Rodney arched and then fell silent. The pain, obviously too much to deal with anymore, won out as unconsciousness enveloped him again.

John set back and sighed. He then began to take off his jacket to cover Rodney. He also took Rodney's nearby pack and gently placed it under his friend's legs, trying to elevate and stave off the shock that had come on.

"Sheppard, can he be moved?" Ronon did not like feeling useless in these types of situations.

"Not right yet, he's out of it again since I set his leg. Plus I haven't had a chance to check him thoroughly. See if you all can radio Atlantis. Both Rodney and I have lost our radios it seems."

"Atlantis, come in, do you read? Come in Atlantis!" Teyla was only getting static still. "I can't reach them. It still is just static."

"Ok, then I want you to head back to the jumper and see if you the jumper's signal can break through. Ronon I want you to start building a backboard so we can try and get Rodney out of here."

"I'm on my way John. I'll be back shortly; we can't be more than half a mile away now. Hopefully the path has not changed too much…"

Ronon, finally happy that he'd been given a task went straight to it.

John turned back to Rodney and let out a sigh as he scanned his friend's body. "Hang in there buddy, we'll get you fixed up and out of here in no time."

John only hoped it would be sooner rather later…considering aftershocks would be imminent.

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TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Night had fallen and Atlantis was under lockdown sitting in a tumultuous sea.

"Any word from Colonel Sheppard's team?" Carter asked as she walked in from her office to the control room.

Zelenka walked from one control console to another and in mid-stride muttered something in Czech and then looked up at Sam and said, "No word, and we have no way to override the city's safety protocols of the shield to send out a shuttle. Nor would we want to at this time…" he paused to look out the window at the sea bucking and pummeling the city's shield.

"You said the city registered a magnitude 7 earthquake on the mainland. I didn't even know we had that sensor capability," asked Sam.

"No, neither did I. Nevertheless, the city recognized it somehow and because of the strength it knew to set the shields. It has located the epicenter of the quake here." He said as he pointed to a map of the northern section of the mainland.

"How far was our team from there?"

"According to my calculations, they must have been 10 miles from it."

"Oh my…"

"I know…we can only hope that the city will shutdown the shield soon…I fear for their safety too."

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Although the shuttle was about a half a mile away, it certainly seemed to Teyla that she was not making very good time. The darkness impaired her speed, not to mention that the already rough path back was strewn with felled trees and open chasms at almost every step. Still, she felt a big relief when she spied the top of the shuttle from behind a hill.

Teyla clicked the remote to open the door and ran in. Pressing the radio com she took a breath and tried to hail Atlantis, "Atlantis, this is Teyla, please come in…"

She was met with static. "Atlantis, do you read?" She paused again and still nothing. "Atlantis if you can hear me…this is Teyla…we were caught in an earthquake…Dr. McKay is badly hurt. Both he and Colonel Sheppard are in a crevasse. Ronon is working on a way to lift them out. Atlantis…if you read this please come in."

Teyla lifted off the radio comm…and nothing. She felt useless and didn't feel like it would be worth waiting to see if by chance the radio would start working, so she headed to the back of the jumper and gathered supplies from the medical kit. She quickly stuffed them in her pack and as she did so she felt the ground lurch. She clung to the supply netting as the jumper decided to suddenly moved up and fall on its side.

Luckily, Teyla's grip saved her from being tossed around too violently…yet she knew that there would be some livid bruises from slamming into the wall. She shook it off and got reoriented. This was certainly not good, but there was nothing she could do to resituate the jumper on her own.

Aftershock…the word popped into her head and she quickly gathered herself, closed up the jumper as she ran back to her teammates. As there would be no foreseeable help from Atlantis any time soon…she ran with determination to be that sole help to her friends. Her only hope was that that last tremor didn't do more harm.

With that thought she exploded with a burst of energy.

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Back down the trail from the shuttle Ronon had started a fire, not so much for the warmth but to be able to see as he finished the backboard and below him sat Sheppard who was trying to check Rodney for any other injuries by the light of a homemade torch Ronon had kindly lowered down to him.

With the shock abated, Sheppard pulled his jacket off of Rodney and began to reassess the state of his friend. He had placed a bandage back over his right brow where the first had been torn off. Sheppard then scanned down his torso. He released the vest closures, unzipped his jacket and lifted up his shirt; noticed some bruising on Rodney's right side but upon prodding the area he was relieved to find no signs of broken ribs. Sheppard did however notice, upon re-zipping the jacket and moving on to the arms, that Rodney's right sleeve was wet. He noticed his fingers were covered in dried blood and imagined it came from grabbing his leg…yet he wanted to be sure his arm was ok as he did see the rock slam in to him. He gently pushed up his sleeve and was greeted with deep bruising and a few scratches but was nothing a quick wrap couldn't tend to for now.

Sheppard zipped up Rodney's jacket to keep him warm as the cool night air was settling in. He then moved down to the rest of his body. Then Sheppard noticed Rodney starting to stir.

"Hey, buddy. You with me?" Sheppard stopped tending to peer up into Rodney's face as his eyes fluttered open and he moaned softly.

"Oh god it hurts..." Rodney screwed up his face then took a long shaky inhale and on his exhale he tried to focus on John.

"I know Rodney…we are working on getting out of here, but first I need to finish checking you over." Sheppard went back to checking over Rodney's lower half and as he did he bumped into Rodney's right hip, which drew a pained cry from Rodney.

"I'm sorry Rodney, what hurts? What did I do?" Sheppard held up his hand and looked into Rodney's face waiting for a reply.

"My hip…god it's just my entire leg doesn't feel right." Rodney took his right hand and gripped his thigh. "My hip feels like it's out of place…and did you see my leg…it's broken."

Sheppard nodded, "yeah, well your whole leg is pretty messed up. I was just about to check the bandages and splint…remember I set your leg."

"Uh..oh..right."

"Let me check your hip." And with that Sheppard prodded away. Through it all Rodney cringed and fought not to cry out. "I think you've jammed it pretty good and probably the joint's inflamed from the impact of that rock. Seriously, what is it with you and rocks today any way, huh?" John said trying to alleviate the situation.

"Ha…mmm…I guess I just like to get stoned." Rodney tried to smile but it quickly faded from a grin to just bearing the pain. John chuckled at his wit despite the world of hurt. Rodney then looked back up at John and pleaded, "Listen, don't you have anything that can take the edge off here. This is killing me."

"All I have is Tylenol…I'm sorry I don't have anything stronger," Sheppard said as he dug it out of the pack.

"Prop me up," Rodney directed.

Sheppard slowly pulled him from under his arms so he could lean against the rocks wall.

Breathing hard from the move, Rodney took the Tylenol and greedily sucked down water from John's canteen. John, however, didn't miss the hands shaking and saw the water dribbling down Rodney's chin as a result.

"You haven't eaten anything since we left the jumper have you?" Sheppard asked concerned.

"No," said Rodney as he wiped his chin off with his sleeve.

"Here eat this," Sheppard handed him a power bar, the last he had on him.

Rodney shakily grabbed it and took a few bites.

"Better?" Sheppard asked Rodney.

"Better." Replied Rodney.

"Ronon," Sheppard stretched looking upwards. "How's that backboard coming?"

Ronon leaned over. "Ready when you are."

"Let's get out of here. Ready Rodney?"

"What, really, you all are going to haul me up on a backboard?" Rodney was concerned.

"Rodney, it's about a 12 to 15 feet trip, won't take no time at all.

"Easy for you to say your not the one taking this lovely journey strapped to who knows what."

Sheppard smiled and leaned back, "Ronon, lower it down."

"Oh, you can't be serious. That is nothing more than two tooth picks and dental floss."

"It's a little more substantial than that Rodney. Look, you'll be fine."

Rodney was so not prepared for what would entail being hauled up on that thing let alone just moving to get strapped to it.

John maneuvered the board as close to Rodney as he could then stepped over it and asked, "Ready?"

"I guess I have no other choice."

Sheppard knew this wasn't going to be easy going for his friend so he tried to be as gentle as possible.

First he picked up Rodney by his underarms, which put pressure on his leg and Rodney cried out. He lowered Rodney onto the board then moved down and ever so gently lifted Rodney's busted leg onto the board. In response Rodney's head threw back and with no energy left to produce any kind of sound…all you could hear were squeaks and fast-paced throated puffs.

"Oh p-please can't this be over already," Rodney looked to John with watery eyes with one tear tracking down the side of his face.

"Soon, I promise." Sheppard said as he secured Rodney. "Ronon, let's take this slow, ok."

Ronon inched it up while John tried to direct it's path to be straight and level. Once the board got to John's eye level Rodney looked at him with wide eyes.

"See you at the top." Rodney tried to show some strength through it all.

"I'll be right behind you." John told him.

Ronon kept inching it slowly up, but right when he had Rodney about two feet away from the edge an aftershock decided to hit and Ronon lost his footing and the board slammed into the cliff side sending waves of pain through Rodney. Ronon dug his heels in and rode out the tremor. He heard John telling Rodney to hang on and in the same breath telling Ronon to just quickly get him up. Ronon didn't question he just did. He was leveraging each pull with the aid of a tree and when he saw Rodney to the top he secured the rope around it and went to haul Rodney from dangling off the edge. That's when he noticed why John was urging to pick up the speed. Rodney's strap around his shoulders had broken and he was clinging on for dear life.

Ronon pulled him to safety and noticed Rodney had clamped down on Ronon's arm and didn't want to let go as Ronon moved him to the fire.

"Come McKay, snap out of it. You're ok. I gotcha."

Rodney came out of it and release Ronon's arm, looked up at him, his eyes then rolled back into his head and he passed out.

Ronon went back and threw a vine over for John to climb up. He only took minutes to get out. Once back on somewhat solid ground, he went to check on Rodney.

"How is he?" he asked Ronon.

"He passed out."

"Well at least that's over, I thought that tremor was going to send him back down. Nice work."

Ronon began to fix the broken strap on the board knowing that they would have to use this board in order to get Rodney out one way or another.

"I wonder if Teyla got through to Atlantis?" John asked aloud.

"I still can't get through on my radio," said Ronon.

"I wonder what is causing all the disturbance," John was at a loss.

John made sure Rodney's injuries were doing ok; while Ronon added more wood to the fire and then they both settled down next to their injured friend. Both anxiously awaiting Teyla and hoping some good news would accompany her arrival.

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TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Here's just a little something to get going again...Sorry for the long wait. I hope to update soon.

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Teyla could make out the faint flickers of fire as she neared the location of her team. She was almost back thankfully as she could only imagine that Rodney must be in dire need of some stronger painkillers.

As she broke through the tree line she paused as she was greeted with tight faces followed by tense exhales.

"Teyla, are we glad to see you. Were you able to get a hold of Atlantis?"

"No, the interference is still strong and the jumper was thrown on to its side in the last tremor so there will be no easy way out."

"Damn, this just gets better and better."

"However, I did bring the medical supplies," Teyla said as she handed the pack to John.

John took it as she looked on to where Rodney lay near the fire, resting fitfully.

"How is Rodney?" Teyla walked over and knelt by his side.

They had removed Rodney from the makeshift backboard to try to make him more comfortable. Yet, it really didn't matter, as he seemed to be in so much pain to be able to get any good rest anyway. He'd toss and turn, which only aggravated his injuries.

Teyla reached out and touched the side of Rodney's face. His fitful rest quieted as he slowly opened pain filled eyes to look up into Teyla's smiling face.

"Tey..a," a strained voice tried to say her name. He then tried to smile but it didn't last long. He went back to clenching his jaw against the pain.

"Hey buddy, Teyla brought back the good stuff just for you."

Rodney looked over at John. The corner of his mouth curled up as he made a jerky nod of his head. John took that to be a sign for 'it's about friggin' time.'

"Ok, you'll feel some relief in just a little bit," John said as rummaged through the pack. He found one vial and injected it in Rodney's left hip.

Rodney made a whimpering sound as the needle went in and then curled his hands in the jacket that covered him as he tried to wring out the pain that he was feeling.

Teyla continued to stroke Rodney's face until the morphine finally kicked in. Rodney's slack face was somehow a momentary reprieve to his teammates, as they knew he needed some rest.

"Well, I hope Atlantis sends out a jumper soon because that was the only vial of morphine in the bag," John said in a forlorn voice.

"John, there should be one more vial in the bag," Teyla raised up her eyes to meet John's. But, she was met with his hand holding remnants of a vial that had been cracked, no doubt from the jumper shifting in the last tremor.

Teyla's eyes were filled with sorrow. "I'm sorry, it must have been damaged when the jumper shifted…I…"

"It's not your fault Teyla. You couldn't have done anything. Anyways, the morphine that I just gave Rodney will give him about 4 hours of pain-free sleep and by then it will be close to sun up. I say we each take an hour of sleep in shifts and then head out to the jumper in that last hour. By then, there should be enough light to move around while still giving an hour left of residual morphine to help Rodney with the trip."

Ronon told them he'd take the first watch. John and Teyla made sure Rodney's bandages were changed before heading to rest. With all things considered…most of the injuries looked to be doing ok, all except for the gash to Rodney's right thigh. It showed signs of infection, red, inflamed and slightly oozing pus…definitely not a pretty sight. Luckily there was some antiseptic in the bag, which they used after cleaning the wound. Satisfied with the fresh bandages and hindered by what they could actually do to help Rodney they both settled down close by.

John ended up taking the final shift. He watched the perimeter but mostly found himself gravitating towards Rodney to check on his condition. He noticed a sheen of sweat on Rodney and his hands were trembling slightly. John recalled Rodney's words as he was placed on the backboard, 'Oh please can't this be over with already,' he only wished those words would come true soon.

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TBC --


	8. Chapter 8

Yep that took longer that anticipated. Sorry for the wait. Hope you like it.

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John looked at his watch and knew he needed to wake his team to get going. Luckily both Ronon and Teyla, being light sleepers, had already started to stir as they heard John coming towards them.

"Hey," Ronon said as he stood up.

Telya sat up where she had lain close by Rodney and placed her hand on his forehead. "Rodney seems to be worse."

"Yeah, I think the infection from his leg is worse…"John began to say but was interrupted by one of Rodney's tremors that all three couldn't help but notice. "…and his blood sugar must be low. We should get some food into him soon but let's get him ready for the trip and see how far we can get back to the jumper while he's still out of it."

John took Rodney's shoulders and Ronon took his legs, being as careful as he could with the splinted one. Even through the drugged state, Rodney's face screwed up in pain and slight groans escaped his lips. Teyla gently helped in the move by holding his head as they placed him back on to the makeshift backboard. She picked up his left arm that had fallen down and noticed his clammy hand as she placed it on top of his chest, and then made sure the jacket over Rodney was tucked around him tight for the journey.

The team then gathered up their effects and set out for the clearing where, according to Teyla, the jumper now laid on its side, totally unable to fly it out. However it would be a good place to wait for Atlantis' rescue…at least they hoped.

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Radek cursed in Czech, 'Ne, nerozumim…,' he pushed his glasses back up his nose as he kept hitting the data pad with the stylus, in what seemed to be a futile effort, to get the city's shields lowered.

Carter came in just then, "Radek, please tell me you have some good news." She said hopefully.

Radek didn't look up but answered, "Prominte, ne."

"Radek, in English please."

Radek looked up like he was just noticing her for the first time, "I'm sorry Colonel Carter, it's just that I have no idea why I cannot figure out how to override the system. I keep running into blocked roads."

"Roadblocks?" asked Carter.

"Yes, them too," Radek said matter-of-factly.

Carter couldn't help but grin a little at his answer as she looked down at her feet and back up. "Can I take a look? Maybe I can help…give you a fresh pair of eyes."

Radek, at his wits end, happily handed over the data pad as he told her all the sequences he had tried.

Carter took in all the information and then started to think out loud to Radek, that what if they somehow made the city believe that environment inside the city was becoming dangerous or inhospitable to human life…then the city would have to recognize this and lower the shields.

"Yes, yes," shouted Radek, "This could work…but how would we do this? It would have to be city wide and not something localized."

Carter nodded, "If we could rig something that would make the city believe the gate was about to explode…then it would understand the only option to save the life of the inhabitants is to lower the shield to send out jumpers."

"Yes, I can do this. What I can do is place…" Radek didn't finish he just went straight to work.

Carter watched as he furiously typed in codes to the computer.

Radek then lifted his eyes to look at Colonel Carter, "Ok, I've crossed power from the ZPM to overload the gate…the city will not understand why there's no outlet or return of power and thus lower the shield."

"How long will it take to reach the 'overload' status and how will the power overload be shut down?" asked Carter.

"It should take about 30 minutes to reach critical and then the shield should lower giving us enough time to send out jumper. After this I will redirect the power circuits and then the shield will go back up."

Carter seemed confident but had some worries, "The waves are diminishing but how much danger will there be for flooding parts of the city?"

"The drop of shields will only be momentary, thus minimal flooding damage and we need to be quick about it. We should call all personal to the central tower…to be safe."

"Good job Radek, I think this will work. I'll get Lorne and Dr. Keller to be in jumper three awaiting the word."

"Thank you Colonel…thank you for your help." And with that Radek went back to monitor the computers.

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Teyla was leading the team through the misty twilight of the forest just about 10 feet in front of Ronon and John. John took up carrying the stretcher at Rodney's head to be able to monitor his friend's condition.

They had been traveling about 25 minutes over the rough terrain through the barely illuminated forest floor and they had another good 30-45 minutes before they reached the jumper.

Ronon and John were traversing over some large rocks and felled trees when John noticed Rodney begin to stir.

"Teyla, hold up a sec," shouted John.

Ronon turned to see what caused John to stop and noticed all of his attention was focused on Rodney. Ronon lowered the makeshift stretcher down to the ground and turned to see John place a calming hand on Rodney's jittery body.

"Hey, Rodney…its ok, we're right here…I'm here."

Rodney's drug hazed eyes cracked open. Glassy and red-rimmed, they tried to focus on where John was.

"John, where?" Rodney said. His voice cracked while his hands struggled underneath the jacket tucked securely around him.

"We're making our way back to the jumper..." John told him but was interrupted.

"Go..ing 'ome…" Rodney slurred as his mouth tried to say the words.

"…and since your now awake I need you to eat something, ok." John looked at Rodney and then up to his teammates. He dug into his vest and pulled out a powerbar and tore it open.

John broke off a piece and held it to Rodney's lips.

"Can feed m'self ya know." Rodney freed his right arm but the movement caused him pains no doubt as he shakily held his hand near his shoulder.

"Rodney, just let me help you." John said as Rodney pawed at the powerbar that John held and it dropped to the ground.

"No," Rodney said with a bit more determination and grasped the bar, laid it to his lips and began gnawing slowly. At about half way through he was just too tired to continue. "I'm not hungry anymore…water?"

"Ok buddy, here ya go," as John helped he noticed that this time Rodney didn't seem to mind the help. He really must not be feeling good John thought. The last sip made Rodney sputter and cough hard, which in turn jolted his whole body.

A painful scream…followed by a steady stream of cries and whimpers, like a kicked puppy, came from Rodney as he grasped John's hand and buried his head in the side of the makeshift stretcher.

John, wide-eyed and tense, held on tight as Rodney rode out the pain his movement caused to his leg.

"It's ok buddy, I'm here, and I'm not letting go." John was surprised how his friendship for Rodney seemed raw and open for the entire world to see, but it was no surprise to his teammates, as they knew he felt deeply for all them and especially for Rodney. Many outside of their team would see their friendship as unlikely, but after these years at Atlantis, the two seemed to become inseparable…like two mischievous boys.

Teyla came over and knelt by Rodney to do what she could as the pain seemed to dissipate. It left Rodney panting but a little more relaxed. Teyla wiped away the tears from Rodney's face and then looked up to John's distraught face.

John made a motion to say something but then Teyla made a pained noise of her own as she grabbed her earpiece swiftly taking it out of her ear. John looked over at Ronon who had done the same.

"What is it?" John asked.

"I don't know, the radio just shrilled…" Teyla stopped as she heard what sounded more like words coming from her earpiece now. She looked down at it and then back to John. John grabbed it and placed it in his ear.

"Sheppard..this is Colonel Carter…If you can read me please come in."

"I read you Colonel…thank god," John said in relief. "Send a jumper now, Rodney's seriously injured."

"Jumper is on its way to you John. What happened?"

"Long story short, Rodney had a round with some boulders and the boulders won. He's got a bad break in his lower right leg and a deep infected gash just above on his thigh. Not to mention all the cuts and bruises to go with."

"John, this is Dr. Keller. I'm in jumper three with Major Lorne, making our way to you. Is Rodney awake?"

"He just came out of the morphine we gave him over three and half hours ago, but believe me he's not in a very talkative mood right now."

"John, where are you?" asked Carter.

"We're approximately a half an hour out from where we landed the jumper. It's in a clearing to the west of us. Unfortunately the jumper is on its side from the last tremor."

"Ok, Lorne is on his way to you in Jumper three. Can you be there soon?"

"It will be rough going with Rodney, but we should get there by the time Lorne does, barring no complications."

"John, do you have any more morphine? It should help with the move and Rodney's pain," stated Keller.

"I wish, as the slightest movement is causing him pain,…but we don't."

"If you have any pain killers left give it to him and try your best to immobilize the leg," Keller looked over at Lorne…urging him to step on it.

"We'll do our best. Just hurry. Sheppard out."

John was mixed with relief and concern. We're so close yet for Rodney, so far away. This trip, without the bliss of morphine, was going to be excruciating for him. He looked down to Rodney as he started to shake his head side to side.

"Buddy, it'll be ok. We are almost home," John told him softly.

"It hurts so bad."

"I know, I know. But you've got to hang in there ok. You can do this. Besides you just get to lie there right…Ronon and I are doing all the hard work." John said as he tried to grin.

Rodney curled up a side of his mouth and laughed with a hard puff of air through his nose. "Yeah, just don't drop me ok."

"Yeah, no dropping, right Ronon." John smirked to Ronon.

"Right," Ronon said with a grin as he gently touched Rodney's undamaged leg.

"Ok, everyone you heard what they said. The Calvary's coming and we got to get going." John said as he took his place at the head of the wooden stretcher. "Let's move out…"

John looked down into Rodney's eyes and said softly, "You'll be fine."

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TBC


	9. Chapter 9

John nodded to Ronon as they slowly eased Rodney in position to continue towards the shuttle. John knew the damage to Rodney's leg would make this one painful trip on his best friend, no matter how much care they took. Yet, he needed medical help and this was the only way.

The world above Rodney shifted as they trekked along and it was making him feel ill. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and chewed on his bottom lip willing the nauseous feeling to leave. His whole body trembled; the pain came in wave after wave keeping in time with Ronon and Sheppard's footfalls. Rodney felt his arms go so tense with his nails digging into the wood of his stretcher; he thought surely someone would have to pry his hands off.

Sheppard's heart tugged with each whimper Rodney would make. He tried to put it out his mind as best he could so his concentration was put on keeping his walk as smooth as possible.

"Teyla, how much further do you think?" asked Sheppard.

Teyla halted to turn back to her team. "We are actually almost there…we have made good time. I'd say about 10 more minutes and we'll be near the landing area."

"Good," Sheppard commented as his eyes looked upon his friend.

When Sheppard looked back up he noticed Ronon flinch and then he stopped suddenly causing Sheppard to run the stretcher right into the back of Ronon's legs. This elicited a scream like no other from Rodney as his poor leg made contact as well. Rodney's head flew up and thrashed back down.

"Ronon, what the hell?" Sheppard wanted to ask what was wrong but Ronon quickly bent down putting the stretcher on the ground, completely throwing Sheppard and Rodney off.

Caught in the throws of pain coming from Rodney, Sheppard completely missed Ronon utter the word 'snake' as he did his best to soothe his friend. All he noticed was Ronon pull his blaster and shoot.

"What the…?" Sheppard stood up and went over to Ronon.

"Sorry, this snake came from nowhere and was about to strike. Is Rodney ok?"

While Ronon was telling him this he took a few step over to what was left of the snake. It was certainly a nasty looking creature. It had to be at least 5 feet long with color patterns never seen before on any snake from earth. A deep purple that was almost black underbelly with a green and black diamond pattern on top with hints of red around its eyes. There also seemed to be some kind of short stubby legs on the rear or the creature.

"This has to be that snake like animal that Zelenka mentioned," Sheppard kicked it to be sure it was dead. It didn't move so he turned back to Ronon.

Sheppard jumped as he turned, for Ronon had taken another shot at the snake. He screwed his eyes back from the snake to Ronon.

"Wha?" Ronon asked nonchalantly, "just making sure."

"You finished?" Sheppard asked.

Ronon shot once more…"yeah."

During all this Teyla had come back to be with Rodney. She was checking his leg splint as well as the bandage on his leg.

Rodney had seemed to fog over after his rough landing. His breath was shaky as he bobbed his head up and down a couple inches off the stretcher. It was not until Teyla tightened a fresh bandage around his thigh that he came out of his pained stupor. His teeth clamped down and his hand flews to his face, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes.

"Rodney? Rodney? Hey, I'm done." Teyla pried his hands away from his face and began to massage them a bit to calm him down. While she tried to get him to focus on her, she felt both Ronon and John move near her.

"Hey buddy, sorry about that," Sheppard looked up to Ronon.

"Yeah, sorry McKay." Ronon was truly sorry. He knew his friend certainly did need that rough treatment.

"S-s-seriously, ya promis'd-d…n-no d-dropp'ng" Rodney stuttered and tried to blink his eyes clear of tears.

Sheppard smiled a sad smile. "I know Rodney, we're sorry. Hey, but we are almost there ok."

They quickly got back to their travels and found themselves looking at the shuttle thankfully much sooner than intended.

Sheppard and Ronon placed Rodney about 20 feet away from the sideways jumper and fixed a fire to break the early morning chill while keeping Rodney warm.

As they waited for Lorne to bring Dr. Keller…they tried to get some food and water into Rodney, yet he was so tired that they weren't very successful.

Teyla stayed near Rodney, but Sheppard and Ronon both thought they could right the jumper to its correct position.

"This isn't working," Sheppard said as he dropped his arms by his side, "Its just too heavy."

Sheppard, admitting defeat came to rejoin Rodney and Teyla. Ronon, however kept huffing and puffing to no avail.

As John sat down he noticed Teyla wiping the cold sweat from Rodney's brow.

"They should be here any moment now," he said as he looking at his watch.

And with that he quickly heard the squeal in his earpiece followed by Major Lorne's voice. "Colonel Sheppard, we see you and will be there in two."

"Copy that," as he looked up to see Jumper 3 flying in a descent pattern towards them, "It's good to see you."

He looked down to Rodney and noticed his eyes looking up at him. John gave him a pat on the shoulder and smiled with a corner of his mouth.

Help was finally here…

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TBC


	10. Chapter 10

Jumper 3 hovered into position and quickly put down near the tree line. As soon as the door was on the ground, Dr. Keller came running towards them with her medical bag slung over one shoulder. She noticed Ronon stoking the small fire near the other three and nodded to Colonel Sheppard and Teyla as she knelt beside Rodney.

To her surprise Rodney was still conscious, albeit a bit out of sorts. His eyes were lined in pain, the heel of his left leg was digging into the ground and his hands trembled as he clinched and unclenched them trying to occupy his mind to deal with the unbearable pain.

Keller reached out and grabbed a hold of his right hand, which caught McKay by surprise. "Rodney what happened to you?" she questioned but it was of the rhetorical kind.

Rodney cracked his glazed eyes and sought out Keller's face, "please help me." His whispered plea was nothing like Rodney to say and was a testament to how awful he felt.

Dr. Keller looked up into John's face, one that was full of empathy for his friend in need. As she did this, Rodney kept whispering pleas to give him something, make the pain go away, please…please…all between hiccups of pain.

"Were you able to find anything to give him in the last thirty minutes?" Keller needed to know, as she didn't want to overdose him on anything.

She didn't get an answer from John right away as he looked down on his friend. "John."

"No. We had nothing left to give him…just, just help him."

Keller lifted a hand and squeezed the Colonel's arm. "Don't worry we're here and he's going to be ok."

And with that she dug out a vial of morphine and injected it into his left thigh. Rodney began to relax after a few minutes. It was enough to swiftly look over his wounds. She noticed that a fresh bandage had been tied over the cut to his right thigh and passed over it for now to get a look at the splinted part of his leg as she wanted to be sure it was stabilized as much as possible before moving him.

"How did this happen?" Keller asked the three team members as she worked at easing around the broken limb to survey the damage.

"Earthquake," came from Ronon.

Knowing Keller would need a better description than the one-word answer that Ronon provided, Teyla stepped up seeing that John was not focused enough to help either.

"We were making our way through a boulder pass heading back to the jumper when the earthquake hit. We got separated as the ground began to shift, during that time Rodney was struck by a very large rock. Beyond the obvious broken leg and gash on his thigh, he also has scrapes and deep bruising on his lower right arm. He also complained of his right hip, but there is no external signs of injury."

"What about this?" Keller pointed to her eyebrow.

"Rodney fell during our traverse towards the distress signal location." Teyla noticed that that eye was swollen, not so much to close the eye, but the bruising was now taking on a few shades of yellow and purple around the edge of the bandage.

"He's certainly not having a very good day." Keller said as she continued examining the leg.

"Lorne, can you bring the stretcher over?"

Keller didn't want to try and remove the existing splint, but she did take additional steps to bind another standard split around to shield it from further knocks as he's transported back to Atlantis.

Meanwhile, Rodney was in the arms of Morpheus, sleeping soundly and removed from the pain.

As Lorne, Ronon and Teyla got ready to transfer Rodney to the stretcher, she noticed John was now massaging his temple where the rock had glanced off of him. "Dr. Keller, you should also know that Colonel Sheppard was hit with a rock also…on the head."

John looked betrayed, dropped his hand and delved into helping move Rodney.

"Colonel, I'd like you to stop lifting anything heavy at this time. If you hit your head then I don't want to take any chances of you passing out on us."

"I'm fine," John said defiantly, "I've carried Rodney all this way, I can do it a bit more." Till he swayed, "…or not."

"See," Keller grabbed his arm, "let us do the work and I want to examine you in the jumper."

John took a few steps back, bringing his hand to his head again to continue abating the sudden headache. He watched as Keller guided the splinted leg while the rest of the team placed Rodney on the stretcher and made their way to the jumper.

"That's it, just put him down on the floor," Keller told the team then pointed at Sheppard, "and you please sit so I can have a look at where that rock hit you."

Sheppard complied but kept his gaze on his friend. He felt guilty that he was being looked at while Rodney was the one who needed her attention the most.

"I know what your thinking but this will just take a second and then I'll get back to Rodney." Keller's words broke his gaze as he turned to her crooked heartfelt smile. "Now let's have a look."

She examined the area and found deep bruising but no open wounds. She continued by bringing up the penlight and flashing it in his eyes. "Did you lose consciousness at any time?"

"No, it just dazed me for a bit…nothing more."

"Well Colonel, I think you got very lucky. I don't see any signs of severe damage, but I still want to run a scan once we're back at Atlantis. Here take these." He took the Tylenol and washed it down with large mouthful of water from his canteen.

Keller, satisfied that the Colonel was ok for the most part, she again returned her attention to Rodney. Noticing the fine tremors coursing through his body, she knew that his sugar was bottoming out. She also began to peel back the bandages from his thigh. Keller almost gasped as she looked at the wound, but instead just sucked in a breath between her teeth.

The wound was definitely showing signs of infection. Red, puffy skin tinged the area around the jagged opening and when touched the wound expelled yellow pus. Keller cleaned the wound as best she could with what she had and rebandaged it.

With low blood sugar and infection Keller swiftly started an IV the back of Rodney's left hand. She also took out a couple of ice packs, cracked one and placed over Rodney's right eye then. Keller then took a bag stuffed with blankets and elevated the broken leg. She covered the leg with a cloth and cracked two more ice packs placing one right below the knee and the other on the ankle to reduce swelling.

Once all the immediate tasks had been completed she took Rodney's pulse, finding it somewhat fast but considering he seemed to be hanging in there ok. She then sat back, let out a sigh and noticed everyone looking at her, even Lorne who was flying the jumper.

"I've done all I can do for now. Once we're back to Atlantis I'll have to get him under a scanner to see the extent of the damage to the entire leg."

With that she looked up at Sheppard and nodded her head acknowledging that he would soon be back home and on the road to recovery.

Sheppard ran his hands through his hair, and then let out a sigh, feeling a burden disappear at the knowledge that Rodney would be home soon and on the mend.

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TBC – almost there…almost home…


End file.
